History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

" Thus it came to pass that a company of men from the then important settlements of Stratford and Mil- ford bought a tract of land of the Indians living on a stream called the Pootatuck, which soon after was incorporated its a town, and, in distinction from the old town, Stratford, from which it was taken, called Newtown. This town, then, from the time of its crea- tion, waited for its name, and so its nominal existence, six thousand years at lea.st; but during all this time it was an object of care to Him who created it, and with whom a thousand years are but as one day. "The town was formally settled in 1700, the first nucleus of a village being, as I am told, on the plain near Mr. Philo Clark's residence, but afterwards changed to this hill. (On vol. i., page 90, of the town records is a plan of the original thirty-four home-lots on Main Street, each lot sixteen by forty rotls, with the names of the original owners.) On Dec. 19, 1710, William .Tunos and Mr. Bush sold their share for twenty-two pounds ten shillings (about one hundred dollars) to thirty-seven men named in the deed. Among these thirty-seven names I find the following names of families still residing in the town: Hawley, Prindle, Nichols, Curtiss, Sherman, and .Tuilson. Freegrace Adams is also named, but most of them have no descendants or representatives of their name living among us. In the next year — i.e., in 1711 — a grist-mill was erected by vote of the town on Pond Brook, and afterwards another on Pootatuck Brook. In 1717 the first school-house was built; it was twenty-five feet .s<iuare and stood nearly opposite this church ; it was used also its a town-house. Other framed buildings soon followed, and the tow^n of New- town, now fully organized, took its place in history. Homes were established, marriages, births, and deaths NEWTOWX. 463 occurred, and the foundation laid for tlie life and liappiness of future generations. "The tirst white child born in Xcwtown was Jere- miah Turner; his grave is near Hawlcyville. Tfe was born in 170i1 and dieil in 177^, aged sixty-nine years. The large elm in front of Mr. liussell Wheeler's house, which is over one hundred years old and has sheltered si.x generations, was planted about the time of his death, and thus is a connecting- link between us and the settlement of this town. May woodman and time alike s])are that tree I " This town, which had its origin in the way related, is one of the largest, if not the largest, in area of the towns in tlie t^tate. Although once a new town in fact as well as name, it is now one <>i' the oldest ol' the towns, — older, ej/., than our neighbor, Water- town, by seventy-five y<'ars, and oldi'r than this nation by seventy years. It has always had an hon- orable history. Newtown was prosj)erous, jiopulous, and intluential before Bridg<'port luul a name, and it has given to the w<irld men and women who have lived and do live in deeds and Words. ( lovernors, cabiuet-otlieers, k'gislators liavc lived here, and one-half score of generati(jns of men, women, and children unknown to fame, but known to (lod. Oh what an intluence has been e.Kcrtcd by the nuxny thousands who have ha<l their homes In-re ! What revelations would be umde if the past should speak of them and tell us the story of tlieir hardsliips and trials, their sorrows and ,joys! " 'TliinU .if all Ihusf who eisl Inive limn Liviiif^ where thou art even linw, lioukiiij; iilion life's liiisy scene With glance aa careless ami lit;ht as thou. All these, like thee, Jiave liveil and moved, Have seen what now thou looke.st upon Have feared, hoped, hateii, uiouiiied, or loved, And now IVom mortal si>iht have gone.' "We do think of them to-day, and, thinking, we are made s(demn by the thought that we are but a part of the long procession, — that we, too, are pa-ssing away; that we .soon shall be numbered with the gen- erations that are gone, ami our successors will some- time be asking ' the days that are ])iist' about us. " If the days that are jiast be comjiared with those that are present, wdiat wonderful changes will a])i)ear! Imagine that the Indians who sold this town to its original proprietors, or those original proprietors themselves, should awake from the sleeji of the cen- turies and survey this goodly land, what would they see which they did not see in 17oii or 17(1') ? In the place of forests and swamjis are meadows ami cul- tivated fields ; in place of log huts or wigwams arc substantial, and often costly, houses ; in place of a few red men or hardy settlers is a pojnilation of over four thousand. Where tlie Pootatiick rolled its silent way to the ' Great River' arc large manufactories, which supply all parts of the country and the world with articles then unknown, while the railroad and tele- graph and our printing-presses would call fortli cx- clanmtions of astcniishment and many ([Uestions. "Hut I must not forget that wc are asscmlded to- day not to be questioned Ijy our predecessors or an- cestoi's, but to question them. ' Ask now,' says our text, ' of the days that are past.' Let us, then, con- tinue to ask iine.stions of the jiast. This mornin.g we asked what the ptist could tell us of history U]) to the time and during the time of the settlement of this t<iwn. " It would be interesting to recount many more facts and traditions which have come down to us from co- lonial times, but it is impos.silile, in such an outline as this, even to allude to them. We therefore hasten to ask another question, — viz. : •• What has the past to tell us of the history of the town, ami especially its eliundies, IVom 17(10 (lor our ecclesiasti<'al history begins almost with the cen- tury) <lown to the present time? Here we enter upon abroad and almost lioundless field ; we can cull only a few of the more important facts and ,join them, as links in a eliain, binding us to the past." THE CONGKEtiATIONAL CHURCH. "That a church was early founded in this town we cannot doubt, and it is jjrobablc that a rude church e<lificc was built about 1710, succeeded by a better building, fifty by thirty-six feet, erected in 1717 at the intersection of Main Street and a ' lane running east and west,' probably where the libcrty-]iole now stands. But the first allusion to (diurch matters which I have been able to discover in the abstract of the town records before me is dated 8ept. '24, 1711, when, at a meeting of the proprietors of Newtown, it was voted to invite Mr. Phineas Fisk to preach one year ' on trial.' "Mr. Fisk, it seems, declined the call, and so, on May 21, 1713, or at an ad,journed meeting held soon after, a call was exteniled to Rev. Thonuts Tousey, of Wethcrsfield, to preach for one year at a sahiry of thirty pounds, afterwards increased to sixty jwunds and the proceeds of sonu' land which the society agreed to break up, sow, and harvest." THE rilt.ST PASTOI!, HEV. THOMAS TOUSEY. " Mr. Tousey graduated at Yale College in 1707. He began his ministry here in or about 1714, and the formal organization of a churcii occurred soon after, probably on Oct. 17, 171o. An old record states that thirty faiiiilii's were then iiiclude(l in the ]iarish. For a time there seems to have been harmony and good feeling in the churcli, but in \~'2'A there apjieared signs of restlessness and dis.satisfaction ; som(> ileclared that they could not ' sit easy under him' (1 ipiote from the town records), and others that they 'were fif a ditl'ercnt persuasion,' meaning, doubtless, that they fiivored the Church of laighnid. The result was that Mr. Tousey went to England, received a commission as captain in the king's army, and on Iiis return re- 464 HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT. signed the pastoral office; he remaiiu-il in tlie place, however, and took an active part in cluireh matters and in town polities until his death, which occurred March 14, 1761. His grave has been identified, but I have not been able to decipher the moss-covered epi- taph. I notice that lie was selected to fix the bound- ary between New Milt'ord and Newtown, and also ap- pointed in 1743 to oppose the formation of a new ecclesiastical society in Newbury, now called Brook- field. He lived, I am tohl, near the present residence of Mr. C. H. Peck, and was the ancestor of Governor Tousey (whose father lived at the head of the street where Mr. Charles Morehouse now resides) and of all bearing that name who have at any time lived in our town, and also of many of our citizens bearing other names. He was an eminent man, and I regret that so few memories and traditions of Iiim are preserved. " In .luly, 1724, just one hundred and fifty -six years ago, the society called Rev. John ncach, of Strattbrd, giving him in settlement one Inwulred and twenty-three acres of land and a home-lot of four acres, a house forty by twenty feet, and a salary of sixty pounds, afterwards increased to one hundred pounds. " In 1735, soon after tlie erection of tlie first Epis- copal church, the t'ongrogational Society, stimulated, pcriiaps, to such extravagance by the growtli of the other society, added to their church six ' fasiiionable pews' (fashionable being spelt on tiie records ' fation- able,' and adjoining 'agining,' showing not tlie ignor- ance of our ancestors, but the unsettled state of English ortliograi)hy before the days of Webster). The other seats were merely rough lienches, and were prohably un-' fationable.' Before this luxurious(?) ad- dition to the church edifice had been made, the society liad called another mijiister, in the person of Rev. Elislia Kent." PASTOKATK OI" UEV, KLISIIA KENT (1733-1740).